i haven’t blogged these before because they barely rested in my hands long enough to be wrapped up before they were gone. a present for M’s friend, they were finished very much at the last possible moment, so unfortunately i don’t have a decent picture of them.

the process was fun and educational and only a little frustrating M came up with the idea to make guinea pigs and i figured there must be a crochet pattern out there somewhere. i didn’t realise at the time that the pattern had only been published a few days before. i found june’s tips for working with fuzzy yarn absolutely invaluable – i wouldn’t have attempted the pattern otherwise.

that said, it wasn’t a complete walk in the park. the eyelash yarn (the lighter, fluffy pig) was easy enough to work, but the boucle (2-colour short-haired pig) really wasn’t. i ended up running a companion thread in a contrasting colour alongside, so that i could keep track of the stitches. i don’t recall the process totally but i seem to remember the legs being a bit of a pita.

still, i’m reasonably happy with the results, once again yay for making things for five year olds. i don’t know much about guinea pigs but i think these are a pretty good likeness, although the eyes are definitely too far forward on the lighter pig.

yay craft content!

a present for nanny, for her 60th. i looked around for a long time to try to find a simple stitch pattern that would make a light lacy summer stole, something along the lines of the seraphina, but in a rectangular format. a stitch dictionary would have been my best bet, i think, but this was a bit of a last minute idea (well, i had 2 weeks) so i didn’t really have time to get hold of one. i’m happy with this simple design though, the pattern is here.

i love the meditative nature of simple crochet and once you’ve worked the first couple of rows of this it’s super easy to remember. it made a good project to force me to sit down and take it easy, rather than quilting which is all up-and-down, and crochet is so much cooler to do than knitting when it’s warm because you’re not in constant contact with so much yarn at a time. it was quite a mammoth undertaking, considering it’s worked in 4ply on a 3.5mm hook. it’s fingertip to fingertip length, and about 16″ wide after blocking. i would have liked to go a bit bigger but a) i wanted it to be narrow enough to use as a scarf in the winter as well as a stole in the summer b) i ran out of time c) i lost my hook, didn’t have time/energy to go buy a new one and i knew a size up would show. so i just ripped back to a finishing row and finished with a row of sc on 4mm.

the yarn is my ubiquitous colourmart cashmere. it takes a certain degree of faith working with the yarn which is rather hard as it comes, since it’s oiled for machine knitting, but i’m really happy with how this has bloomed. it’s only had a gentle hand wash, a machine wash will soften it up even more.

isn’t she a cutie? she’s actually my v2, as v1 is still in production. she’s a belated kinda-valentines pressie for M’s best friend. we’re a non-valentines household usually, but they made cards at school, M chose to give hers to us (as school intended, i presume) but T gave hers to M. cue T getting rather upset that no-one had given her a card. M made a card the next day, rather out-of-genre since it was of a tropical island (she thought it up and made the whole thing by tearing and sticking paper herself, it was fabby). but T had admired the octopus i was working on, so we thought she might like one of her very own, in pink, her favourite colour.

the pattern (here) was a joy to work, up to a point. there was no indication of the finished number of stitches per round, so when i thought i may have screwed up there was no way to check. the way the legs curl is just so damn cute, but the pattern was rather opaque when it came to the part where you attach the underside of the legs to the underside of the body. since each is done as the leg is worked, it’s not possible to just rip back the bits you realise are totally wrong without undoing the entire underside of the legs as well. i still haven’t figured a way of working them i’m totally happy with, and i got no reply to a plea for help from the pattern maker.

yay for working to the quality control standards of 4 year olds is all i can say. still, everyone who’s seen them wants one, so i’ll have plenty of time to practice and work out a method i’m happy with.

i’ve finally written up the pattern for boo’s dress: here. i’ve taken some close up pics of the frill detail, and general views, but i can’t include them in the page without it screwing up the layout have linked to the gallery, but that takes a while to update the tags so if you can’t see them find them on my flickr: here.

i just couldn’t resist the ripple blanket craze that’s sweeping the planet (well, here and here). but having neither the patience nor the mighty stash with which to accomplish such a feat i’ll settle for a doll-sized one.

it’s around 4″ x 5″, 4-ply cashmere, 2.5mm hook. i was surprised to be unable to easily find simple instructions for the ripple pattern online, but crochet workshop came up trumps. the diagram that explains the structure of the pattern is worth a thousand sets of written instructions where the overall pattern is a mystery until at least 2 rows in. i can see i’m going to love this book.

i didn’t have enough colours to go for the random stripe effect, so i thought i’d do a coloured stripe on the blue. when it turned out the colours in the wallpaper were pink, orange and green on blue i thought i may as well chuck them all in. i’m enjoying working with this yarn in different combinations, i find it interesting how different they can look.

the above pic is after washing you can see how much it’s bloomed compared to the stringy pre-washed pic. seeing as my motto for the dollshouse turns out to be the same as my overall parenting motto (“good enough”) there was no way i was weaving all those ends. after another wash the clipped ends will have felted into the knots completely.

now i must go and investigate that annoying smudge which appears to be on the bottom of my lens.

i got a new book this week. well, new to me at least. crochet workshop by james walters. when someone as talented as helle jorgensen who makes such amazing stuff as this:

highly recommends a crochet book you have to sit up and take notice. i found one online for a very reasonable price (if you’re trying to track down an affordable copy don’t despair!) and snapped it up. i haven’t yet had a chance to settle down for a proper read, but i love that it gives you the real nitty-gritty knowledge that informs a real understanding of the structure of a crochet piece.

i love vintage craft books, i love having a less-well-known source of inspiration. that’s not saying that following a project word for word from a book no-one’s heard of has any greater merit than doing the same from stitch n bitch or knitty (and not knocking that, particularly as a way to pick up new skills, or as simple relaxation). but it offers an alternative aesthetic, as well as techniques that may have been overlooked by modern authors.

i was pretty excited when i heard via inaminuteago that a 1912 embroidery manual – embroidery and tapestry weaving by grace christie – had been added to the guttenberg project. and oh how disappointed i was when i realised that guttenberg doesn’t support illustrations. i mean how much use is that? i’m not a particularly visual learner, i like words (in case you hadn’t guessed ), but really, an embroidery manual without pictures?

i’ve also been browsing the art&design books on ebay and have found a few crackers, though they’ll have to wait for payday. i feel that going back to original sources like this forces creativity – the work isn’t done for you, you have to translate your inspiration into whichever medium you’re working. it’s reawakened my interest in acquiring a more systematic art education rather than the bits i’ve picked up piecemeal over the years. i still have half a shelf-full of art history books on extended loan that haven’t been read and are due back soon, so i’m going to try to work my way through them. now i just have to stop myself falling asleep in the middle of the greek classical period…

doll pattern now available here and in a permanent link from the sidebar (disclaimer: proofread, but not tested!).

i made more of an effort to document my process this time, although i wonder whether the amount of detail is more confusing than enlightening. i wouldn’t advise looking too closely at the pictures as an aid to interpreting the pattern or you may notice a few discrepancies. e.g. where the legs don’t match because my gauge changed so dramatically that matching them row for row would have left one significantly longer than the other. or when i say i worked in spirals for the solid parts, when actually i did in some places and not in others and you can see the difference between the row-worked and spiral-worked parts easily

i would have included detail shots of her shoes but we’ve managed to lose one on the other side of the country already hence the number of shots of her in her undies (that and the fact i don’t have a pattern for the dress anyway).

oh and she has been rechristened, permanently this time i think, as boo.

the newest member of the family. in this house of mutating names she may not stay the same for long, but she was initially christened ramanda and has been a real hit, even usurping beegu the alien as bedtime companion on christmas night. she was finished in the nick of time on christmas eve, hence rather out of focus rubbish pix. will try to get some details at some point.

she’s made in rowan wool cotton, a truly lovely yarn to work, on a 3mm hook (3.5mm for her dress and shoes) and is around 14 inches tall. i had 5 balls stashed, an impulse ebay purchase, so limited in my colour choices – i would have liked blue hair but wanted to go for something mostly conventional. she’s heavily influenced by elisabethd’s work, especially the big feet, i just love that shape. and the eyelash details were lifted straight from here, too. but i didn’t want to go full-on amigurumi-style, i wanted something comfortingly traditional too, still not sure whether that balancing act has really worked. i remembered much too late (christmas eve!) how difficult embroidering onto crochet can be, and how a slip of the needle can make the difference between an adorable expression and something rather alarming

i got a bit confused when it came to the stuffing. i was so focussed on making sure she was fully washable (i.e. working interior circles to keep poly pellets and stuffing from mixing in the wash) that by the time i realised i actually only wanted the body weighting and not the feet it was waay too late. so she’s rather heavy but happily can stand (supported) and sit rather well.

she has rather a lot of hair – a whole ball’s worth in fact. i didn’t have time to think about styles, so she’s ended up with the first thing i did to keep it out of the way while i was working (the hair had to be threaded before the head was finished). there’s all the time in the world for playing around with do’s now though.

her dress and shoes were worked to the corresponding body part pattern, but on a larger hook, so they fit snugly. although i clearly wasn’t paying enough attention when i was writing out the pattern as – once again, too late – i realised that the shoe worked to the written pattern is one row shorter than the other. even getting the pattern right is no guarantee, though – the second leg worked up at such a different tension that i had to omit a couple of rows to make it roughly match the other for length.

i originally envisaged the dress as sleeker, but as i was working it the white frill suggested itself so strongly i was powerless to resist. i think it’s cute and it definitely edges the whole effect back towards the traditional.

which is rather a blessing, since i really didn’t want her to be too out of place against the wonderful bed. when i saw it on treefall i was besotted. i’ve loved manda’s work since i first saw her princess and the pea sets, but this was something that i just knew i wouldn’t be able to make myself (even if my sewing machine did still go backwards, i don’t have a suitable stash of cute quilting fabrics, but mainly i’ve never made a quilt, and yet another new learning process to digest that close to christmas wasn’t going to happen).

the bed arrived so beautifully wrapped i had my very own mini christmas opening the parcel. and it’s just as beautifully made, really meticulous. madam was gratifyingly impressed with both doll and bed when she opened them. she insisted on putting ramanda (spooky name coincidence by the way, i didn’t mention manda’s name to her at all) to bed, taking off her clothes, turning the light out and reading her a story before we could get on with opening the rest of her presents

i’ve tidied up the pattern and posted it here, also accessible from a link on the sidebar. i also want to add a futurama keyword for the search engines

i’m not sure what possessed me to think i could make this fella in 2 weeks in secret in time for rasputnik’s birthday. in the end i had to give him the option of a surprise present that might be completed in time for christmas, or spilling the beans before he was done, and finishing him in the evenings. overall i’m pretty pleased, although i reckon his body’s a bit too fat and his arms are a bit too long and he’s just a little understuffed (bender, not rasputnik ).

i was pretty surprised that there was no existing amigurumi pattern, i would have thought he’d be an obvious subject. i was initally inspired by this post at crochetville, but she doesn’t seem to have published the pattern anywhere, and he was bigger than i wanted anyway. so i had to wing it, based very loosely around the amineko pattern. i’ll post the pattern up, although i haven’t tested it, and there are prolly some mistakes. i’m not going to write it up in full either, just post row charts, since it’s really straightforward enough to work from those.

also, if i were making again i would probably refine things like the body shape. the arms could be a bit shorter if the torso were narrower too. then there are other little tweaks like sewing the legs and arms in the right orientation so you don’t see the stripe jog. or this could be fixed by working the legs and arms in rows rather than a continuous spiral, although the fabric looks noticeably different this way (this is how i worked my amineko, so the stripey body joined up a treat, although i now think i prefer the look of the traditional spiral method).

but technicalities aside, he was fun to make (and would be much more so working from a pattern rather than having to rip each piece several times to get the shape right) and has been an unqualified hit with all members of the household (well, okay i haven’t checked with the cat). the fact that you can alter his expression by squeezing his eyes is particularly entertaining, we all love cross bender

and of course the accessory potential is huge and could keep me in work for birthdays and christmasses for many years to come – cigars, beer, a little magnetic flexo beard, a gender bender tutu and wig etc etc… madam has already asked if i’m going to make a matching fry, and although i have to say i’m sorely tempted to have a try at zoidy i’m not sure whether my skillz are up to it – it’s no accident i picked the excessively simple robot. and tbh i have other plans…

yay! a (nearly) finished object: the Very Important Blanket. it still needs ends weaving in, but since i must have spent (no kidding) at least 5 hours weaving in already, i feel justified in calling it finished as soon as the last stitch of the border was stitched.

it will be getting a wash but not be blocked as such so this is it in all its frilly-edged glory. i hope the frilling and colour choices don’t make it too girly if baby turns out to be a boy. it’s really too big for a baby blanket, but it’ll be a great playmat and hopefully should see blanket service well into toddlerhood and beyond.

to recap, after much deliberation i settled on a 50% cotton 50% acrylic dk weight yarn (brett’s kool kotton) with a 4mm hook. it took 15 50g balls, with enough spare to make at least one more sleepy cat (for whom i purloined some of this yarn). the pattern is “textured bluebells”, #6 in the book 200 crochet blocks. it’s just a row of sc, ch 2, skip 2 (us terminology, still can’t think crochet in british english) followed by a row of 3 dc into the sc of the previous row.

the squares are joined using the magical flat braid method which means it looks as good on the back as it does on the front, but i clearly didn’t get it quite right since i ended up with gaps at the corners. following some welcome assistance from crochetville i carried on the braid pattern by adding an extra 2 entwined ch3s in each space. you might just be able to see in this pic. i also needed to add another ch3 along the edges where the squares joined to get the edging to sit right. it made for a very neat solution but a whole host of extra ends to be woven.

i had to order an extra ball to complete the edging, but i think it now looks well balanced and properly finished, so it was worth it. dunno if the dyelots were the same but you can’t spot the join. the edging is a simple ch3, sc into loop row followed by a ch3 picot row (ch4, sl st into 3rd ch from hook, ch1, sc into loop).

and finally, time for my confession. i have committed greater sins against crochet, but i think this one is still quite major: i knotted my ends. i just didn’t want to run any risk of everything coming unravelled in the wash, since i’m really hoping this will see serious service and will therefore have to withstand serious washing. also, had it been a wool yarn i would have been more confident of the weaving and intermeshing of fibres alone to hold things fast, but this cotton acrylic is smooth and slippy and the open pattern didn’t leave much space for thorough weaving. so there it is, another one to go down on my permanent record…

this has been a thoroughly enjoyable piece to work (save the weaving of course), the squares are nicely portable, the pattern became soothingly automatic (but not boring) very quickly and i never failed to enjoy how cleverly the flat braid knits together.

my pellets arrived today so i finally got round to stuffing and finishing my amigurumi cat. i’m very glad i crocheted so tight (dk yarn, 3mm hook) as the pellets are pretty small and could probably come out through the fabric if i’d used a standard hook for the yarn.

to keep the pellets in the end of the limbs, since they aren’t stuffed, i stitched across the openings where they narrow (not tightly, just to make a kind of spider’s web across the inside). the stitches are barely noticeable to the untrained eye, but you can see them if you’re looking out.

the arm and tail placement is majorly skew-wiffy but i think that adds to his rakish charm. the muzzle is a little low and has come out squarish rather than oval. i’m not overly happy with his features either. i wanted to use some of the different colours of yarn to tie the scheme together, but the green isn’t as much contrast as i’d like for the eyes and the nose is just huge because i couldn’t get the fine control i needed using a blunt yarn needle. it came out all mishapen so i added extra stitches at the top to even it out, so it’s massive, but kinda cute.

i don’t think i stuffed the head enough, but i was worried he would topple over. i was also worried i hadn’t added enough pellets to his bum to balance, but it turns out he sits up perfectly – adding the limbs and tail help to prop him up in the obligatory silly poses.

it sounds as though i’m really unhappy with him but i’m not, i think he’s great. i think i’ll send him for a trip through the washing machine before i hand him over – i’m a little nervous about how well tied off everything is.

i never thought i’d join a crochet along.

i’m not a joiner by nature. opinions are divided over whether i’m a team player or not (my experience says nu-uh whilst my cv apparently still says hell-yeah). i never once pondered whether i’d enter the knitting olympics. it’s just not my style. which is why i’ve never yet made it to the stitch n bitch and why it still kinda freaks me out that people i’ve never met read my blog (though thankfully only one a fortnight ).

until i saw this. the sleepy eyed cat. oh how i fell in love (not in a cutesy way, in a purely aesthetic, elelvated way ). this fella is famous – all over the world there’s pics of this critter posing away. and while i can kinda crochet, i’ve never crocheted in that kinda way and there were loads of people over at glitter who were happy to talk me through it. it was bigger girls made me do it…

i’m currently in limbo awaiting various stuffage supplies. this is how far i’ve got:

there’s all kinds of things i’d do differently next time, but i’ve really enjoyed this quick project so far (i started after i finished work last night and even with much ripping i was mostly done after an hour or two this morning). oh dear, everyone who knows me, prepare for the invasion of uber-cute shite

aside: ElisabethD does absolutely the best selection of amigurumi out there imnsho. check out her sold stuff at etsy.

edit: these colours are so so badly wrong i’m tempted to take the pictures down. i’m not utterly overjoyed about them irl but the pictures are hideous

i’ve started swatching for the Very Important blanket and i’m much becoming much happier about it as the yarns knit up. i was distinctly uninspired by the colours when they arrived, but they handle beautifully and are making a nice soft, relatively drapey (for crochet at least) fabric. i think my design choices will make or break the colours, but used boldly i think they’ll be fine.

the book was utterly unhelpful when it came to yardage, refusing to give even the vaguest guidelines – only telling you to swatch, unravel and measure. my 2 test squares weighed in at 16g and 25g for the plain and bobbled respectively, which gives me a minimum of 28 squares if i use every last scrap of each colour, up to a maximum of 40+ if i use lighter, lacier patterns.

guage-wise i seem to be working looser than the given guage, but i’m happy to stick with that and have a lighter, drapier fabric. so far the squares are miles off size-wise. the purple is 6 1/2″ x 6 1/2″, the bobbled is 6 1/2″ x 7″, both without blocking. they’re a match width-wise, but there’s 2 rows difference length-wise, even having accidentally left a row off the bobbled one. i’ll give them a good wash and see how they shape up, i’m sure i can trim here or add there to make them match. i don’t want to block the smaller one out to the larger size because it opens up the holes in the fabric more than i’m happy with.

whilst i’m happy design-wise with both blocks i’m not convinced about the practicality of either: the lacy one is absolutely as lacy as i dare go for a baby blanket – i know i wouldn’t have been happy using anything with any bigger holes for a young baby. then the bobbly one is a little heavy (though i hope the cotton will soften on washing) and a little – well – bobbly. it’s not really lumpy and would be fine as a cover but not ideal for a baby to lie on. i made a previous sample working the bobbles on the right side of the fabric rather than the reverse and wasn’t happy that they were bobbly enough, so reworked it from the reverse as instructed. now i’m thinking that we might be better with a little less relief.

but the bobbles as they are are just so damn cute…

(the colour still isn’t right here, but it gives a much better idea of the character of the yarns at least – quite subtle and muted – and yes, the top one is the same tricksy purple one)

and more. i decided the bobbles just aren’t going to work in the body of the blanket, though i’m holding out hope for a bobbly border. i’m going with the more flexible, lacier vibe, but i’m still vacilating about tiny fingers and holey blankets. think i’ll show the swatch to some friends with recent babies, see how they feel about it.

holiness has increased thanks to joining the blocks using the flat braid method, which i’ve been itching to try ever since i first saw it. it makes a wonderful join – virtually flat and totally double-sided. it’s not even as tricky as it looks – making sure i had an equal number of stitches on every side to start with was the hardest bit. while that’s not strictly necessary an Important Project brings out my perfectionist tendencies.

speaking of which i’m not totally happy that i’m heading for a simple patchwork of solid colour blocks, but all the blocks in the book that have interesting colour work are either very holey or worked in sc (or dc, i’m finding getting used to uk terminology a challenge, i keep mentally translating everything, since all my recent crochet has been done from us patterns). but then i don’t have a great range to work with in the first place – they’re all so similar value-wise i think any patterns would fall quite flat anyway.

so the project veers away from my initial plans, but hopefully towards something that’s workable, and (though i say it myself) is shaping up to be quietly lovely. and believe it or not all this apparently aimless rambling does help me sort through my numerous thoughts on the project quite productively.

i adapted this from the tapestry crochet kitty bag pattern. this only bubbled back into my consciousness because i was trying to work out how come i get so many search hits for variations of crochet hello kitty (kitty from this pattern, hello from the url). and i guess this post will prolly just compound the problem – sorry guys, no hello kitty here.

i was fascinated by the idea of tapestry crochet (aka mosaic crochet) – that you carry alternate colours of yarn within each stitch so you can create a 2-colour design without floats on the reverse of the fabric. the extra yarn makes the fabric stiff and perfectly suited to the containers i’m rather taken with, and desperately in need of – having very little storage space most of my stuff is on display.

in a frantic stash-purge i decided to scrap the rug plan and repurpose my “rug yarns” (rather lovely shropshire and sorry overspun wensleydale) containerwards.

i spiralled a base, but had to rip back a fair way to get it to sit flat. is there some kind of formula for making the increases so you get a properly flat round irrespective of the weight of the yarn?

even though i faithfully counted a hundred stitches in the final round (twice!) for a multiple of the 10-stitch pattern, i found i had loads of extra stitches once i’d completed the first pattern round. this actually worked to my advantage as it turned out i wasn’t happy that the sides were shaping up as i wanted. i had major splaying with the previous container i made, so i reduced a stich every other round between the first and last repeats, until the gap was the same as the other repeats. so now it has this fantastic gently curving shape.

the tapestry technique is a little unweildy but fairly easy to adapt to. my biggest problem was the yarns twisting together as i worked. it got more complicated when i introduced the third thread for the green eyes, especially since that thread was doubled, but since it was only for one round it didn’t get impossibly messy. i used a fairly small hook for the weight of the yarn (3.5 mm i think), and worked as tight as i could, and was heading towards blisters by the end.

there wasn’t quite enough yarn to complete the final row, but i figured the extra height was worth the not-quite-joining-up, and it would never have been perfect since it’s worked as a spiral so there would be a jog at the end no matter what.

fate stepped in when it came to blocking. i tried every round object in the house until inspiration struck – it turned out to be a perfect match for one of my saucepans. i stretched it, steamed it over the kettle for a couple of minutes then let it cool in situ.

i’m really pleased with this, especially since the final idea and execution only took an evening’s work plus a little finishing and blocking, instant project . i love how the colours work together – alone the shropshire was much browner, but given the creamy white contrast it comes over much more grey. the colour changes also really helped me come to grips with the structure of a crochet stitch, that the final loop of the previous stitch sits above the next one (if that makes any sense at all).

i’m really keen to explore the technique further, viz:

• explore interplay of colours, textures. e.g. hairy herdwick or something pouffy (coils? boucle?) with sheeny wensleydale
• empahsise spiral structure, chevrons
• random motifs and placement, pixelation
• traditional fair isle designs
• add surface embellishment, embroidery

and with two colour geometric designs in mind, with perfect (psychic!) timing whip up sent me to folkology today. i’m entranced by these, although reading urbanspinner reminds me they’re not easily translated into tapestry crochet because of the slanting structure of the fabrics (sitches placed above each other are offset). bummer.

edited to add: urbanspinner has some great posts about her work with tapestry crochet. i particularly like her use of two constrasting multicoloured yarns in this bag: a cunning way of adding more colour interplay without extra threads.

i’ve been dithering for months over an Important Purchase, and have at last bitten the bullet and made up my mind. it’s yarn for a baby blanket which will be crochet blocks from this book. wanted something easy care, preferably cottony, subtle rich colours, less than £2/50g.

no chance.

have been debating the toss between subjecting myself to weeks of work with eyeball-searing luminous plastic (let alone subjecting poor mother and babe to same) vs second mortage for something rowany or blissish.

my decision was to compromise on the colour front. it’s the modern use of colour that appeals to me most about the book, and i loved the idea of using non-babyish colours for a blanket that would hopefully last through to childhood. but the colours i like simply aren’t available in my price bracket for the project. so i’ve had to go slightly softer, more pastelly, more conventional/traditional, which isn’t the end of the world given that i at least got a composition i’m happy with: 50%cotton 50%acrylic, machine wash, see here. they say it’s lighter than 100% cotton which is true judging by the yardage per 50g, perfect for a summer baby. even better i got it for 99p a ball + cheap postage from dianne’s yarns.

next comes the fun bit, choosing the squares…

this was supposed to be a basket to store yarn, but i severely underestimated how far my yardage would get me. this is all 95 yards of handpsun #7 transformed into a thing 12″ by 5″ by a paltry 2″ high. i gained a little extra height with the picots which are totally out of keeping with the yarn and the rectangular shape, but i actually quite like it. i’m using it to (try to) keep my keys, cards and other essentials together.

i made it up as i went along, starting with a long spiral, squaring it out by increasing just at the corners and not along the ends. i realised i’d have to change to rows when i got to the sides as the spirals make for a single-sided fabric, fine for the base, but not the sides. on the first side row i worked into the back loops only, which makes for a nicely defined corner.

it’s worked with a small hook for the wpi (4mm iirc) and the fabric is pretty tight, it’d stand up a bit more if the picots didn’t make it wider along the top row. i’m pretty pleased i’ve got a (semi) functional item out of what was all along a colour experiment. i can’t believe how all the colour repeats happened to fall together though.

jo sharp .:. The Wool Shack Knitting Store of Australia
yeah right like i need another crochet shawl…

knitting-and.com patterns & blog, spinning stuff too.

almost finished the original seraphina shawl, except for weaving in the yarn ends on the buttons. i hate weaving in, even though the shawl only had 6 ends total i still had to take breaks…

it ended up a little small to stay put properly so i’ve rigged it into this kinda capelet style with the buttons. i think it looks great. this was so much fun to do, it was always my treat project for when i’d done a decent amount on something else. the yarn was lovely to work with, and i love the stitch definition – check out the detail.

buttons are the tagua nut ones i had stashed. i think they go close enough, even though they’re a very olivey green against the blue green of the yarn.